Gender and Sports

About twenty-five percent of the girls in the urban areas have never participated in sports by the time they reach the twelfth grade. It has been noted that the participation of children in sports is greatly determined by social classes and age (Kang, Youngsoon, et al 2017). Most of the parents in the low-income categories agree that they rarely check on the participation of girls in sports. Majority of the parents say that they have not been able to meet the needs of girls in sports at school levels. It has been noted that girls from the immigrant families are more likely to participate in sports than girls. At childhood, parents have the belief that girls and boys should behave differently and buy them different types of toys. Boys are normally given balls, cars while girls are given dolls (Baker, 2016).

It is believed that girls are likely to adapt to the dolls more easily than the female and it is important that they are only given only the items that they find relatively interesting (Tobias, 2018). It has been noticed that there is a probability that girls and boys may happily accept the various toys given to them at tender ages. However, the society addresses differently as they grow and this affects the way they take in the various occurrences in the environment (Baker, 2016). However, hardly twenty percent of the females who engage in sports are encouraged by their mothers (Stefansen et al 2018). Although both parents might encourage their daughters to engage in sports, fathers tend to focus more energy on the boy's engagement in sports. The support of children in sports has faced great bias.

Reasons why women sports are not as popular as those that involve men Checking on the attendance of fans in the men and girls games, it is clear that more focus has been placed in the male sports. On average, it has been noted that men sports are likely to have more than twenty times number of funs as compared to the female sports. It is important to note that the media directs the masses on what to do. Giving more focus on the girl sports is likely to define the probability through which people are likely to be engaged in sports (Grogan, 2016). Media can help in the achievement of gender equality in sports. The media has been noted to ignore the women athletes and the contribution of women in the day-to-day sports.

The media can act as a source of inspiration to almost women who have interest in sports but almost lost hope in it due to inadequate representation. The women took the stand to be engaged in sports through feminist’s movements (Krahn, 2018). The success of the involvement of women in sports was established between the 1950s and 1960s following the outline of the Civil Rights Movements that was applied in various parts of the world including Australia (McCrone 2014). The women got the opportunity to get a law that was in form of Title IX. Title IX banned any form of gender discrimination in education including that involved sports and that women must be given equal opportunity as men when it comes to sports. Women should also be given the opportunity to participate in sports as they also give great revenue to their countries if they win the various gifts that are given during competitions.

In Understanding Girls (pp. SensePublishers, Rotterdam. Grogan, S. Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children. Taylor & Francis. J. Little, G. C. Harwood, C. G. Meier, H. E. Successful, sexy, popular: Athletic performance and physical attractiveness as determinants of public interest in male and female soccer players. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 51(5), 567-580. Stefansen, K.